Ashley Furntiure to open Sarasota store

Desears Appliances will close its store at 4650 S Tamiami Trail in Sarasota and move to a new location in University Park.

The longtime appliance store is having a moving sale and will close its location soon to make room for the building’s new owner, Ashley Furniture. Desears employees confirmed that the building has been sold to Ashley Furniture. Desears will open a temporary store in Tuttle Bee plaza at the corner of Bee Ridge Road and Tuttle Avenue.

Eventually the store will open a permanent location on University Parkway, employees said.

Ashley Furniture had hoped to expand into University Park last year by opening a freestanding building in the Benderson Development-owned Shoppes at University Town Center plaza, but formal plan never materialized. It would have been the Wisconsin-based furniture company’s first store in the Southwest Florida region. In all, the company has more than 25 stores in Florida, including in Clearwater, Fort Myers and Naples.

Ashley was ranked as the No. 1 retailer on Furniture Today’s list of the top 100 furniture retailers in 2012. The company’s sales grew 12.2 percent, to $2.6 billion, in 2011, according to the trade publication.

As the housing market rebounds, so does the furniture industry. Southwest Florida will regain another furniture chain, Matter Brothers Furniture is building a brand new store from the ground up on Clark Road in Sarasota.

Desears was a locally-owned appliance chain with four stores in Southwest Florida until it was bought by Colorado-based Appliance World in 2007. The chain suffered greatly from the Great Recession and has struggled ever since.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.